Veggie Grill: Eating veggie without really noticing

Veggie Grill's sweet potato fries

I wasn't sure what to expect at Veggie Grill, a Southern California mini-chain that takes "American comfort food" -- bbq chicken sandwiches, onion rings, Buffalo chicken wings -- and makes them completely vegan, but with familiar flavor profiles. A few writers and I were invited to try the Farmer's Market location recently and meet with co-owner T.K. Pillan, who is firmly convinced that eating "plant-based cuisine" has numerous health benefits. The owner says that even with deep frying and secret sauces and such, diners are still getting lots of benefits from eating plant-based meals.

veggie Buffalo wings

Hail Kale salad

What I liked about Veggie Grill wasn't so much the pseudo-meats but the large variety of salads and vegetable side dishes, especially the kale-based ones. Hail Kale salad seems to be everyone's favorite, and it's a filling mix of kale, grilled tempeh, carrots, tomatoes, walnuts and corn salsa. If Veggie Grill were a touch closer to my office, I'd certainly pick one of these up for a healthy lunch. They also Thai chickin' salad, Baja Fiesta and Chop Chop chef. Veggie Grill definitely doesn't want you to go away hungry, and the veggie burgers, grilled portabello sandwich and various chickin' sandwiches combine wheat buns with lots of vegan mayo-based sauces for hearty, if not exactly low-calorie meal. My favorite things we tried were the sweet potato fries, and the steaming kale with ginger miso dressing. As far as the mac 'n cheese with vegan cheese -- well, just get the fries instead.

Portabello sandwich, mac 'n cheese

If you're not big on fake meat, just stick with soup, chili, fries, a salad or portabello burger. Veggie Grill isn't trying to be fine dining, it's a fast casual place where everything is under $10 and people who aren't used to vegan food won't be intimidated, and it does a fine job within those parameters. Pillan says the plan is to keep expanding, possibly to Pasadena, the Valley and out of state, in the near future.
Veggie Grill: Farmer's Market, West Hollywood, Santa Monica, Torrance, El Segundo, Irvine

Mohawk Bend brews up some Echo Park action

Mohawk Bend saved the theater's marquee

I've probably spent decades complaining about how hard it is to find a good craft beer selection along with some beer-friendly bites like fried calamari or fish 'n chips. Echo Park's new Mohawk Bend, which took over the nearly 100-year old Estudio theater that sat empty for so long, looks like its about to remedy that situation when it opens sometime next week. At last night's press preview, we sampled some of the 70 mostly Californian beers that will be on tap and small batch spirits like Root and Snap liqueur, Sorciere absinthe and the whole Greenbar Collective lineup from right here in Monrovia.

Mussels are sourced from Carlsbad

I'll have to wait till they open to try the Monterey squid, but the grilled artichoke, roasted cauliflower, salads and pizzas were all promising. A large swathe of the menu offers vegan pizzas, a quinoa burger and other snacks without eyes, while the omnivorous can try the Dork burger, made with local pork and duck, mussels, clams or chorizo-stuffed dates.

A huge array of taps features mostly Californian beers, priced as low as $4.50 a pint

The cavernous theater has been divided into a cozy dining area in back with a roaring fireplace and weathered brick walls, a long bar area with coffee-shopesque red vinyl stools and plywood booths, and a patio lounge fronting Sunset Blvd. with another fireplace.

A fireplace warms the rear dining room

The owners of Mohawk Bend, who also own Tony's Darts Away, are aiming for a truly local experience, even down to the Miracle Mile bitters in the Mildred Pierce cocktail. Sure, it'll soon be overrun with guys with bushy beards wondering why there's no Chimay, but no matter. I'll be the beardless one in the corner munching on fish n' chips and drinking Pliny the Elder.
Mohawk Bend
2141 W. Sunset Blvd.

Red Medicine: Lunch is over, how about dinner?

"Red Medicine. There's just so much...baggage," sighed one man about town when I mentioned lunching there recently with another food writer. And it's true, more people wanted to know if we were photographed and booted out of the restaurant like L.A. Times restaurant critic S. Irene Virbila when she tried to eat there. But no, in the waning days of lunch service, they seemed happy to have customers. The restaurant is now open for dinner and drinks only, starting at 6 p.m. Though it's gotten a near-rave from Jonathan Gold and glowing mentions of the desserts elsewhere, it seems many people still haven't been to Red Medicine, which is turning out some very creative interpretations of Vietnamese dishes.

I was more interested in the food than the reputation, but the now-departed lunch menu only gave me a tantalizing preview of what might be in store on the much more ambitious dinner menu. Fried sweet potatoes sounded like a fun small bite, but turned out to be a massive bolster of shredded sweet potatoes meant to be torn apart, wrapped in lettuce leaves and dipped in sauce. It's similar to the Vietnamese dish banh tom, but without the shrimp. Great presentation, but this would serve about six people as an appetizer and the two of us were a bit overwhelmed.
Chicken dumplings are nem in Vietnamese, more like little chicken meatballs than a wrapped dumpling. Served on a multi-sectioned plate with an array of dipping sauces, they're tasty little bites, but not startlingly flavorful. The pork belly banh mi with pate would be better shared among several people, so rich were its fillings.
But the dinner choices sound fascinating, with dishes like Roasted brassicas with Chinese sausage, smoked date and maitake mushrooms, or Lamb belly with salsify and hibiscus-onion.
Red Medicine picked a Wilshire Blvd. location that some people view as a no man's land, but the interior design has an industrial chic that begs you to come dressed in, for example, a severe grey silk sheath with large architectural eyeglasses. Pull on something black or grey and go now, before something else changes, and let me know how the dinner menu is faring.
Red Medicine
8400 Wilshire Blvd.
Beverly Hills
323-651-5500

Sidewalk Grill: Much more Med in Los Feliz, plus Paradis Ice Cream

The patio on hopping Vermont Ave. is the place to be at Sidewalk Grill

Though the Middle Eastern population is spreading more towards Pasadena and the west valley these days, Armenian/Lebanese/Mediterranean restaurants continue to open in Los Feliz. Middle Eastern is one of my very favorite cuisines -- healthier than most restaurant fare, easily adaptable for vegetarians, and usually reasonably priced. I don't get why some Middle Eastern restaurants seem a bit stuffy or formal (Desert Rose, I'm talking to you) --  a little out of touch with current dining trends: they could use a touch of casual, rustic and fun. Fortunately Sidewalk Grill is a more informal spot, good for a pitstop before the movies, a play or barhopping. Here's an excerpt from my Los Feliz Ledger review:

 The simple menu includes chicken, salmon or steak kabob plates, pita wraps and several salads that can be topped with chicken or salmon. Despite the traffic and enthusiastic beer drinkers from the pub next door, the patio tables are the place to be to check out the pedestrians' fashion statements. Los Feliz certainly needs more healthy, reasonably priced options, since prices in the area seem to rise every time a new place opens. At first glance, the Sidewalk Grill seems to fill that bill. But a $10 filet mignon kebab plate might leave bigger eaters hungry even with roasted potatoes, rice, pita and babaganoush on the side.

Sidewalk Grill's filet mignon plate

Mediterranean salad with romaine and feta is a fairly healthy choice, topped with grilled salmon, though green olives seem incongruous instead of the usual black. Other side dishes include tomato soup, hummus or yogurt tzatziki, or combine several for a vegetarian plate. With the addition of more choices—roast chicken a la Zankou, or traditional Persian dishes like the lamb shank and cherry rice available at the family’s Shekarchi restaurant downtown—Sidewalk Grill could become a real neighborhood fixture.
After dinner, stroll across the street to another recent addition, Paradis Ice Cream in the former Pinkberry location. Read more at the Los Feliz Ledger.

Birba Pizza & Cocktails: A cool Palm Springs spot, even in summer

Tricolore salad is the poster child for this popular dish

When Cheeky's came on the scene in Palm Springs a couple of years ago, it was a breath of bacon-scented fresh air in the mostly moribund desert. Now, the owners of Cheeky's have taken it a step further, turning the large adjacent garden into Birba, a mostly-outdoor evening pizza and cocktails lounge. Even without burrata and charcuterie, this patio would be a lovely place to sip an icy carafe of rose as the temperature finally sinks below 100. But add some wood-fired pizza and sophisticated salads, and there's little reason to explore other Palm Springs dining options. Large shards of good parmesan were scattered over the tricolore salad, which had a bright lemony dressing and perfectly fresh radicchio, arugula and endive. Burrata salad made a pretty plate, and pizzas were topped with the likes of homemade sausage or braised greens. There's also a specials menu with mains like roast chicken and more creative salads, if you're not in the mood for pizza.

The patio is pleasant even in summer heat -- and dog-friendly

In the summer, it's still pretty hot in the evenings, but omnipresent desert misters help take it down a notch. My only quibble would be the trendy lucite chairs, which are a little sticky in the heat for all the shorts-clad diners. Cocktails include the Habanero Margarita, Lemongrass Rickey and French Lemonade, and both the rose and white La Veille Ferme wines are a great value at $28 a bottle.

margarita pizza has a very respectable crust

Birba

622 N. Palm Canyon Dr.
Palm Springs
760-327-5678